Download - Modern Materials Handling

commodity. “So many customersseem happy enough to get chargedby the batch, and three or four outof five will say that they don’t evenknow what they pay per pound or literfor fuel,” says McLeod. “Get threeor four propane suppliers bidding onyour business and you’d be amazed atthe savings.”7) Take out the emotionEmotion-based decision-making cantake many forms, says BEB’s Bratton.When a customer buys a lift truckbecause that’s what their predecessorsdid in the past, he adds, that’s an emotionaldecision.“An employee’s under-performancemight be about data and it might havemeasurable solutions,” says Bratton.“But firing that person is an emotionaldecision. You might be able to use thedata and fix, not fire.”Making decisions with data ratherthan emotions can mitigate the apprehensionmany facility managers may feelat the idea of involving a third party, addsMcLeod. “The people tasked with fleetmanagement are usually the ones wholeast want to do it,” he adds. “They thinka third party will prove they’ve beenwasting resources, or that they had noreal grasp on their costs to begin with.”Facility managers often worry aboutan outside company finding somethingthey should have found, says Bratton.A good fleet management partner, addsBratton, is not a whistle-blower, but ateam member who can shine a light onproblems and best practices for all to see.8) Lift trucks can’t be maintainedforeverWhether by design or by accident, toomany facilities maintain old lift trucksOwens & Minor finds partner for relocationChris Wroblewski, general managerof the Dallas division of medical productsgiant Owens & Minor, says thestressful moments of early 2010 arenow just a fading memory. The transitionof a new customer required acompletely new 238,000-square-footdistribution center by May 2010.“And we were informed of thetransition in January of 2010,” saysWroblewski. “Put yourself in myshoes and you can imagine I wasconcerned.”After a 48-hour move requiring190 people, 300 truckloads of material,and a double-sized fleet of 80 lifttrucks, the facility went live in May2010—just 78 days from conceptto completion. “We finished operationson Friday and moved the entirebuilding over the weekend,” saysWroblewski. “We were operationalon Monday.”After the move, Owens & Minorwanted to take the opportunity toimprove its lift truck fleet. With the helpof Malin, an integrator of materials handlingequipment, systems and services,Owens & Minor improved visibility byinstalling a fleet optimization solutionfor its lift equipment. Among otherefficiencies, the new technology helpedright-size their fleet (The RaymondCorp.) for a reduction of $12,000 peryear in lift truck optimization.Wroblewski says the solution isworking remarkably well, especiallyconsidering the initial concerns ofsome of his internal teammates.“They were skeptical of disruptingoperations or including costs thataren’t needed,” says Wroblewski,who adds that a pilot programhelped allay those concerns.“Suddenly they had hard data thatshowed that there were gaps of idletime in our operations. What wasperceived to be a painful process wasseamless and painless and has helpedus improve our productivity.”After moving into a bigger location, this Owens & Minor facility reducedannual lift truck fleet spending by $12,000.mmh.com MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 47